EU fires preemptive shot at Microsoft over Vista

Microsoft's contentious relationship with the European Union continues, as the …

It's a conundrum that arises time and again: any software company that wants to continue turning a profit needs to release new editions of their products, even if the current version works just fine. To generate consumer interest, value must be added to the new product in the form of either back-end improvements such as greater stability, new APIs, etc., or front-end improvements such as a more responsive interface or additional features. Sometimes this feature creep leads to disadvantages like software bloat, in which the convenience of an additional capability is offset by the hefty or unstable code added to implement it. If your name is Microsoft and your goal is selling a new operating system, feature creep earns you a letter of warning from the European Union.

That's what happened this week, when the European Commission sent a preemptive shot over Microsoft's bow regarding anti-trust issues it feels might be raised with bundled features in Windows Vista.

"We are concerned about the possibility that the next Vista operating system will include various elements which are currently available separately from Microsoft or other companies," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd said.

Microsoft has not yet released a final list of software to be bundled with the operating system. It is known that the anti-spyware application Windows Defender will be included in Vista, as will additional search features, an upgraded interface, and some hooks for Office 2007. Nevertheless, the European Commission, which has had a quarrelsome relationship with the software giant over the last few years, believes MS is likely to integrate capabilities that will edge out other software developers at the expense of consumers.

This is not a concern without merit, nor is it unique to Microsoft. In the early-90s, IBM bundled Windows itself with its OS/2 operating system. Microsoft assaulted Netscape Navigator by integrating Internet Explorer into Windows. Most recently, Apple gazed upon the Mac shareware application Konfabulator, found it desirable, and "invented" Dashboard for OSX. Although they have filed no formal complaint, Google and Symantec are believed to be among the companies concerned about Vista.

"Symantec has received and has cooperated with requests for information by the European Commission. We have provided information to assist the government in understanding the complexity of the information security industry and our role in it."

The problem, in the eyes of the EC, is that Microsoft holds a virtual monopoly over computer operating systems. Yes, consumers have other options, but with a market share hovering in the mid-90% range, MS can gain an unfair advantage over other products with little more than a hint of bundling a similar product with a new OS. While the US Justice Department has failed to ever win a significant battle against the software company, the EU has repeatedly gone head-to-head with MS.

Later this week a hearing will be held to determine the outcome of Microsoft's appeal of the €2 million/day fine that was levied against the company by the EU. Whatever the outcome of that case, this new letter is a warning that the European Commission will be scrutinizing Vista all the way up to and after its release early next year.